{"id":588,"date":"2019-02-14T22:30:48","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T22:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2019\/02\/14\/2019214racing-to-miss-usa\/"},"modified":"2020-09-05T19:36:44","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T19:36:44","slug":"2019214racing-to-miss-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2019\/02\/14\/2019214racing-to-miss-usa\/","title":{"rendered":"America’s next Miss USA could be from Hamden"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Savannah Giammarco<\/p>\n

Hamden\u2019s Acacia Courtney now wears a crown — but she is no stranger to the limelight.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n

Though the 26-year-old was crowned Miss Connecticut USA<\/a> on Jan. 5 at the Palace Theater in Stamford, she’s frequently on television in her role as a horse racing correspondent for the Stronach Group, which owns the Gulfstream and Pimlico race tracks. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been around horses my whole life and I grew up riding in Connecticut,\u201d Courtney said. \u201cI never thought I could make a career out of horses. Its something that I always loved, but I never thought that I could make it a profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

A graduate of Fordham University, Courtney has commentated<\/a> on notable horse races including the \u201cTriple Crown\u201d which include the Preakness, Belmont and Kentucky Derby races as well as the Pegasus World Cup. She has appeared on national sports channels, including FOX Sports, and has a following that extends on an international scale.<\/p>\n

Her love of horse racing came from her own adventures as a child equestrian. Courtney\u2019s passion for horses brought her to the realization that after retirement, whether it\u2019s an unsuccessful career or due to an injury, race horses are often inhumanely disposed of. Most of the time these horses are sent to Canada or Mexico<\/a> to be slaughtered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sat there and I said, \u2018I really wish something could be done about that.\u2019 And then I said, \u2018I can do something about that,\u201d Courtney said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n

Then, at just 17-years-old, Courtney set out to create her own non-profit 501(c)(3), Racing for Home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to Suffolk Downs (a racetrack in Boston) on the last day of racing when people were wrapping up, and for a lack of a better term, getting rid of some of these horses that weren\u2019t making the cut,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Racing for Home takes these horses in and finds them new, loving homes and sometimes, a new purpose. One of the organization\u2019s rescues, Firestar, was repurposed as a hunter\/jumper and won second-place overall at the Shallowbrook Cabin Fever Winter Show Series.<\/p>\n

Courtney also keeps busy with her preparations for the upcoming Miss USA pageant. At the pageant, Courtney will compete in three phases of overall competition: swimsuit, evening-wear and interview. The top five contestants will then go on to compete in an on-stage question portion. <\/p>\n

However, Courtney isn\u2019t new to the pageant stage. In 2015 she took home the title of Miss Connecticut for the Miss America Scholarship Organization<\/a>, where she went on to place in the top 15 at Miss America. During her teen years, she competed at the 2011 Miss Connecticut Teen USA pageant, where she placed third runner-up, and in 2009 she was awarded the title of Miss Connecticut\u2019s Outstanding Teen.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n

When Courtney\u2019s not working out to ensure she\u2019s swimsuit ready or \u201cmock interviewing\u201d to prepare to \u201cwow\u201d the judges during the interview phase, she\u2019s tending to her busy travel schedule. <\/p>\n

Courtney just returned home to Connecticut Monday morning after attending the red-carpet MusiCares Person of the Year Gala in Los Angeles. <\/p>\n

MusiCares is an effort put on by the Recording Academy that supports artists in times of need. This year Dolly Parton was the honoree, and the gala featured performances by artists such as Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite her busy yet philanthropic lifestyle, Courtney said she has a mission for her year. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever it is that you are passionate about, even if you feel like it\u2019s going to be something so small, you can make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hamden\u2019s very own Acacia Courtney speaks on her rise to pageantry. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":589,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hamden","category-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2310,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions\/2310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}